janet rice

The Australian Greens have announced a suite of LGBTIQ policies in the lead-up to the federal election, which will be held before the end of May. The policy platform, unveiled on Friday by the party’s LGBTIQ spokesperson Senator Janet Rice and Victorian Greens candidate Adam Pulford, cover discrimination, health, homelessness, and conversion therapy. Rice said …

Greens senator Janet Rice has said that Labor’s anti-discrimination bill to protect LGBTIQ students could pass the Senate when parliament resumes this week. Rice told a rally organised by Equality Australia in Melbourne on Saturday she believes support from the crossbench could allow Labor’s bill, introduced by Senator Penny Wong, to pass its first hurdle. …

Independent Sydney MP and Equality Campaign co-chair Alex Greenwich has written to the Anglican Church asking for an apology for the LGBTIQ community instead of lobbying for discrimination against gay students and staff in religious schools. Last week, a group of 34 New South Wales Anglican school principals signed a letter to federal MPs demanding …

The federal government has defended its refusal to release the religious freedom review’s long-awaited report, claiming it should remain confidential while the federal cabinet is examining its findings. The religious freedom review, headed by Philip Ruddock, was announced last year to placate conservatives following the passage of same-sex marriage legislation in December. The review panel …

The Australian Christian Lobby’s director has said that a ban on so-called “gay conversion” therapy is “totalitarian” and parents should be able to “counsel” children out of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. “[‘LGBTI conversion therapy’] is an Orwellian phrase. It evokes images of electric shock treatments, bizarre rituals, and abuse,” managing director Martyn Iles …

Greens senator Janet Rice has written to the Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, calling for action against Indonesia for the discrimination of its LGBTI community. Last weekend, police in the Indonesian province of Aceh conducted raids on beauty salons and detained a number of transgender women, forcibly cutting their hair and making them wear male …

The Senate has passed a motion calling for the allocated money not spent on the same-sex marriage postal survey to be redirected to mental health services. After the result was announced, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ chief statistician said he was confident the survey had come in at least $20m under it’s $122 million budget. …